♪ You got a BFF, I wanna see that girl ♪
♪ It's all women invited ♪
♪ Hairdos and nails, that Louis, Chanel ♪
♪ All up in the party ♪
♪ Presidents in my wallet ♪
- (chuckles) So glad you could make it, mi compadre!
Hey, what's wrong?
- Oh, nothing! Nothing is wrong!
I'm just chilling
with the guac
from my chip hat.
- Hey, what's up, guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish,"
where this week we're taking a look
at the tortilla sombrero from "Despicable Me 2."
For the record, I had a very hard time deciding
between this and the nacho hat from "The Simpsons,"
but I preferred the use of the hat's rim
as the vessel for dipping substances.
Speaking of which, first up we need to make the sombrero.
Into the bowl of a stand mixer
we are combining 10 ounces each
masa harina and all-purpose flour
along with 2 tablespoons of kosher salt.
A tiny whisking until homogenous.
And then I've got 5 ounces of lard, cubed,
which I'm gonna scatter across the dry stuff
and incorporate by virtue
of the stand mixer's paddle attachment,
about three minutes on low speed
until the mixture resembles wet sand.
And then I'm gonna start slowly adding some boiling water,
anywhere from 8 to 12 ounces.
Just add a little bit at a time.
You don't want the dough to be too crumbly, like this,
but you don't want it wet either.
What we're ultimately looking for
is a freshly-popped-can-of-Play-Doh kind of consistency,
every-so-slightly crumbly, but not gloopy or sticky.
Once we've got that right where we want it,
we're gonna knead it by hand
for a couple minutes on the countertop,
just until it comes together in a nice, smooth ball.
And then we're gonna press it out into a disc,
wrap it tightly in plastic wrap,
and fridge for at least one hour.
This is gonna allow the dough to relax
and make it even more easy to roll...
Whoop, that wasn't a great toss.
And you wanna try that again?
Perfect.
Once fully refrigerated,
we're going to subdivide the dough
and try to help develop its gluten.
There are three sort-of facets to our sombreros,
so I'm gonna divide it into three roughly equal pieces.
Close enough.
And then on a lightly floured work surface
I'm going to laminate these pieces of dough,
which basically means I'm just gonna
roll 'em out into a long strip,
fold it in thirds, rotate 90 degrees,
and repeat the process.
Gluten is normally something
we'd want to avoid when making chips,
but we need one singular chip that is strong enough
not only to hold its own guacamole
but to be worn as a fashion accessory.
So go ahead and laminate each piece three to four times,
wrap in plastic wrap,
and then it's time to take a look at our sombrero mold,
which, as you can see, it's a bowl inside of a cake pan,
both of which I'm going to spray down liberally
with nonstick spray.
And then we're gonna roll out the different parts
of the sombrero in three separate pieces,
starting with the sort-of dome thing
in the center of the hat.
I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge
in sombrero architecture.
We're taking one of the three pieces of dough that we've got
and rolling it out as thin as we can possibly get it,
cutting it into a shape
as closely resembling a circle as possible,
wrapping it up around a rolling pin,
and then using our rolling pin
to drape it over our greasy bowl.
And then comes the meticulous part of shaping.
First we have to cut some strategic fold-over points.
And then once the bowl has become fully ensconced,
we have to press it down and try to even it out,
a job made much easier by whatever the hell this thing is.
I found it in a drawer
and it turns out to be absolutely perfect
for rolling and forming tortilla sombreros.
The next piece is the base of our brim,
which will eventually serve as our sort-of guacamole moat.
Once again, rolling this guy out as flat as I can.
Cutting out a circle in the center,
which, once we wrap it up once again around our rolling pin,
will, eh, hopefully fit like a glove
around the dome of the hat...
Nice.
And now we must both press this as evenly as possible
into the bottom of the mold,
trimming the edges and merging it
with the bottom of the central dome,
trying to make it as flat as and even as possible
while repairing any rips.
Next and last is the rim of the sombrero.
Now, this is a 10-inch cake pan,
which means a circumference of 31.42 inches,
which means two strips 15.71 inches long
and about an inch and a half high.
Of course, I did my math wrong somewhere
and I ended up having to patch it a couple times,
but either way, lay down the strips,
press them flush against the walls of the cake pan,
and press them down in the corner
to merge with the base of the rim.
And there you have it.
You have at least formed a tortilla chip sombrero.
But now it must be dried out
in a 300-degree Fahrenheit convection oven
for one to one and a half hours.
It should shrink and darken just a little bit.
And once you've let it cool for about five minutes,
you can pull it out of the pan, pop out the molding bowl,
stand in awe of yourself
that you didn't somehow destroy it in that process,
and let it cool on a wire rack for about another hour.
Again, this is gonna help dry it out before we deep fry it,
or at least our closest approximation of deep frying it.
You see, I do not have a thing big enough
to deep fry this in,
so I'm gonna treat it kind of like a porchetta,
heating a whole bunch of oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
and very gently and very cautiously,
and with the full weight
of the knowledge of what I am doing,
ladle it over every facet of the tortilla chip hat.
Boy, I sure do get to say some crazy things on this show.
Then once again, very carefully,
we're gonna dump out any excess oil collected in the brim.
Once again you should stand in awe of yourself
that you've made it this far
before draining on some paper towels,
generously salting with kosher salt
while it's still warm so that it adheres,
and allowing to cool completely about 30 minutes,
during which time we can make our guacamole.
We're going to need a not-insignificant amount
of guacamole for this hat,
so I have here four large, ripe Hass avocados
that I'm going to cut in half and remove their pits.
And then I'm going to score their flesh
with a butter knife for easier mashin'.
Once you have cut a crosshatch pattern into the flesh,
you can scoop it out with a spoon,
rinsing and repeating with the rest of your avocados.
Then, first and foremost,
we're gonna hit these guys with lime juice.
I'm using three limes,
which is both gonna add a whole lot of flavor
and prevent the avocados from turning brown too early.
I'm also gonna add one whole small,
finely-chopped red onion;
one whole small, finely-chopped jalapeno,
ribs and seeds removed;
and three whole large, finely-chopped cloves of garlic;
also a little shake, or about a half-teaspoon,
of ground cumin;
and a whole bunch of finely-chopped
green vegetal substance that's definitely cilantro.
It's definitely not parsley
so that I can eat this and enjoy it.
I would not go to those kinds of lengths to deceive you.
And of course we have to add a big ol' pinch of kosher salt
and a few big twists of freshly-ground black pepper
before realizing that our intended bowl is way too small
and that we're gonna have to upgrade.
And mashing together with a fork
until the desired consistency is achieved.
I personally like guacamole with visible chunks
so I have targets to aim for.
And with that, it's time to fill up the brim
of our tortilla chip hat.
Make sure it's evenly distributed,
both for aesthetics and for the sake of weight distribution,
because what good is a tortilla chip sombrero
if you can't actually wear it?
And this one is definitely
a size and a half too small for me,
but it still does the job.
It might not be perfect,
but is my very first edible fashion accessory.
To wit, let's see how it tastes.
And you might think of the tortilla chip sombrero
as the fun, hands-free way to consume your favorite snacks.
And while it tastes surprisingly good,
it's actually dastardly difficult to practically consume.
You have no idea what's going on up there.
You're just sort of diving blindly,
hoping that the hat doesn't disintegrate with every crack
and that you'll find guacamole pay dirt with every stab.
That being said, it's the most fun I've had
eating chips and guac in a long time.
I don't really know how you would ever
feasibly eat the center of this thing, and I don't care.
It's a Cinco de Mayo miracle
and I just could not be happier with it.
That being said, I know that one of my dear friends
is gonna be even more excited than I am.
Yo, Weissman! How you doin'?
- Babi's calling me in the middle of me making fries, dude?
What's up, man?
(Babish singing angelically)
(laughing) Yo! Oh my god!
It's like a bowler hat! He's so cute!
- Yeah, it's like a porkpie hat.
- It's the bowler sombrero!
- It worked out really well.
The chip is a little thick, but I wanted to show it to you
and try to tempt you to come out to New York
so we can do another collab,
now that the world's getting back to normal.
- Dude, you know I'm already there,
but if there's no sombrero hat awaiting me,
then I don't know, man.
I don't know. That's like the number-one thing.
I've fantasized about that for years. In my sleep.
- No, dude. Thank you so much for popping in.
I'm sorry I don't have this for you to share right now,
but I'll have one waiting for you.
Come to New York. I'll come to Austin.
- I'll be there. Thank you, Babish.
I love you.
(upbeat music)